Brain Break: Trick Yourself Into Productivity With This App

Coffitivity mimics the sounds of the coffee shops you'd rather be sitting in than your cubicle.

By
Shondaland Staff

Jan 18, 2018

Maia Boakye

The Shondaland office's love of ambient noise is well documented — and we're forever in search of new sounds to add to our soundtrack. Luckily, we've found Coffitivity this week, a website and app that makes your office sound like Starbucks. Literally.

Hear us out (hah, get it?): Lame as this might sound, some people really are just more productive in cafes. It's science. Recent studies have shown that working hard is contagious — i.e., there's a possibility that we all work harder when we see others working harder around us. Basically, caffeine addiction isn't the only thing that keeps aspiring writers and other keyboard toilers glued to their coffee house seats. The open laptops, grunts of frustration, and clacking away at keys may actually all be beneficial to our productivity. And according to a University of Chicago study, the ambient noise provided by places like coffee shops is good for your work ethic: "A moderate level of ambient noise is conducive to creative cognition."

Of course, we're not all work-from-home nomads, so for those of us who need to show our faces in the office every day, there's Coffitivity. Coffitivity offers three free distinct coffee shop playlists: Morning Murmur (a pleasant low hum of chatter, stirring spoons, and change hitting counters), Lunchtime Lounge (a slightly more vibrant grouping of sounds with the echo of clanging pans), and University Undertones (continuous chatter with what sounds like the occasional clunk of a book). The app works perfectly alongside Spotify; you can use both at the same time, adjusting your cafe track to pump in under your music for the same effect you'd get listening to a cafe's playlist. For a few extra dollars, your cafe of choice can even sound like Brazil, Texas, or Paris. Exotic!

But whatever locale you choose, this app is an amazing resource for someone who needs the focus of background chatter, but can't make the escape. Honestly, once this app starts working on you, it's almost like going into a trance. Looking up from your computer, you might find yourself surprised that you're still in your office.

Download Coffitivity to trick your brain into thinking you're working out of your favorite coffee shop — and maybe get some of those brainy benefits out of it, as well.

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